April 30, 2019: Stream of Coin-sciousness

Halfway through our annual Apr-May coin show marathon, Team CRO is trying hard to keep up with the workload, shrug off the sleep deprivation, juggle the home office activity AND stay ahead of the resulting paperwork avalanche (seriously – I still find it astonishing how much paper this business generates) in what is always our most intensive travel period of the year.

Not sure why, but it’s the same every year with tons of activity crammed into this concentrated period while other months go wanting.  Can we not spread out some of this activity?

Also hard to manage:  Not eating too much while having half your meals in restaurants, and the cash flow crunch (since we often buy more than we sell at shows and obviously that isn’t exactly sustainable week after week after week).  Which means plenty of kale salad when we our home and as many high powered Early Birds as we can squeeze into this schedule . . .

. . . we had several interesting discussions with people this month about their collecting directions, and, across all series and specialties, we tend to hear the same thing over and over:

“I can’t find the coins I need!”

To which we always respond that that’s the whole idea – it’s supposed to be difficult.  If it wasn’t, you could complete your entire collection in a few months and we don’t think that sounds like much fun.  So our advice is always that unless you are attempting to collect something which literally can never be found, be patient, stick to it and remember that much of the numismatic thrill is in the hunt.

Also, if you are so inclined, having a less expensive but still challenging secondary collection to satisfy your desire for more action can be a good solution . . .

As I type this our new website project is now underway, as we attempt to find the delicate balance between keeping all of the things we like about the current site while making the changes necessary to join the modern age (i.e. have it work better on a tablet or mobile device, among other things).  So yes, there will be change-a-coming before too long – but not in our basic premise or approach to the business . . .

JA